(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to identifying, analyzing, or correlating materials and users through their intensive and/or extensive properties, as detected through scans or spectra, and providing to and receiving from users information related to materials and/or users.
(2) Description of the Related Art
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, the approaches described in this section may not be prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Systems for capturing the Raman or other spectrum of a chemical are generally intended for laboratory use or for use by trained personnel in specialized applications such as the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. These spectrometers use a free-space design, in which light travels in air between lenses, gratings and detectors. These systems are bulky, difficult to use, and expensive.
Such systems often perform the analysis in the microprocessor inside the device with reference to a local library stored within the device. This limits the complexity of the calculations, the breadth and depth of the database, and the ease with which the software and the database can be updated.
Such systems usually perform the analysis by finding the closest match in the database, but this approach does not work well with mixtures rather than pure chemical compounds. In such systems, usually reference is made neither to orthogonalizations of one spectrum against another nor to the relative distances between potential matches themselves, and this approach tends to lead to closest matches which are incorrect.
Other systems identify a sample by scanning a bar code or typing in a UPC or EAN. This approach does not work when the original packaging for the sample is no longer available or not convenient to access. This approach also relies on the correctness of the metadata associated with the sample, which is not guaranteed. This approach also fails to detect differences between samples with the same metadata, such as spoiled food.
Systems for presenting information about Raman and other spectra are often designed for experienced scientists who can interpret the spectrum of a chemical, deduce the likely molecular structure of the chemical compound, and guess the identity of the chemical. Even when automated identification is successful, the information is often then presented in a form suitable only for trained chemists.
Systems for identifying a mixture, for example from the universal product code of a product provide little or no information about the composition of the mixture, except for that provided by the manufacturer, when this is available. These lists of ingredients are regulated by institutions such as the FDA, which allows these lists to be incomplete, ambiguous, or even misleading.